Falei com o xerife.

Falei is the 1st person singular form of the preterite of falar (to speak / to talk).

So it means:

• I spoke
• I talked
• depending on context, sometimes I said

In this sentence, Falei com o xerife, the most natural idea is I spoke with the sheriff or I talked to the sheriff.

The preterite is used for a completed action in the past.

Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when the verb form already makes the subject clear.

• Falei already tells you the subject is I
• so Eu falei com o xerife is possible, but Falei com o xerife is perfectly normal

You might include eu for:

• emphasis
• contrast
• clarity

For example:

• Eu falei com o xerife, não o delegado.
  I spoke with the sheriff, not the deputy/chief.

Because the verb falar can be used with different prepositions depending on the meaning.

• falar com alguém = to speak with / talk to someone
• falar a alguém = to speak to someone or sometimes to tell someone, depending on context

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, falar com is extremely common when you mean having a conversation or contacting someone.

So:

• Falei com o xerife. = I spoke with / talked to the sheriff.
• Falei ao xerife. = grammatical, but less common in casual speech and can sound more formal or literary

Portuguese uses definite articles much more often than English.

So o xerife literally looks like the sheriff, and that is the normal way to refer to a specific sheriff.

• com o xerife = with / to the sheriff

Saying com xerife by itself would usually sound incomplete or unnatural in standard Portuguese.

This is part of a broader pattern:

• Vi o médico. = I saw the doctor.
• Falei com a professora. = I spoke with the teacher.

It can potentially match all three in English, but the preposition helps a lot.

With com, the most natural translation is:

• I spoke with the sheriff
• I talked to the sheriff

If you wanted I said, Portuguese usually works differently, for example:

• Eu disse... = I said...
• Eu falei que... = I said that...

So in Falei com o xerife, falei is best understood as spoke/talked, not just said.

A common Brazilian pronunciation is approximately:

• fah-LEY for falei
• koh-moo or komu in connected speech for com o
• she-REE-fee for xerife

A few notes:

• falei has stress on the last syllable: fa-LEI
• x in xerife sounds like sh
• final e in Brazilian Portuguese often sounds like a short ee sound, so xerife may sound like she-REE-fi / she-REE-fee
• com o often links together in natural speech

A rough English-friendly guide: fah-LEY koh-moo she-REE-fee

It is a normal Portuguese word meaning sheriff, but it is not a role strongly associated with Brazilian institutions the way it is in the United States.

So Brazilians understand xerife, especially from:

• movies
• TV series
• books
• translations involving the U.S. or the Wild West

In Brazilian contexts, you are less likely to encounter an actual official called xerife than in American English.

It can also sometimes be used figuratively to mean someone who acts like the boss or enforcer in a group.

Yes. Conversei com o xerife is very natural and often suggests more clearly that there was an actual conversation.

Compare:

• Falei com o xerife = I spoke with / talked to the sheriff
• Conversei com o xerife = I had a conversation with the sheriff / I talked with the sheriff

Sometimes falei com can even mean I got in touch with or I spoke to, while conversei com emphasizes the interaction a bit more.

No. Com normally does not contract with the article o in standard Portuguese.

So you say:

• com o xerife
• com a xerife if the sheriff is female

This is different from other prepositions, such as:

• de + o = do
• em + o = no
• a + o = ao

So:

• do xerife
• no xerife (in other contexts)
• ao xerife

But not co xerife in standard modern usage.

Portuguese allows flexible word order, and starting with the verb is very common, especially when the subject is omitted.

So both of these are natural:

• Falei com o xerife.
• Eu falei com o xerife.

The first is often the more neutral everyday version because Portuguese does not need the subject pronoun as often as English does.

Yes, slightly.

• Falei com o xerife. = neutral, everyday
• Eu falei com o xerife. = adds emphasis to I

You might use eu if you are contrasting speakers:

• Você não falou com ele, mas eu falei com o xerife.

Or if you want to be especially clear about who did it.

But in ordinary conversation, leaving out eu is extremely common.

A very natural Brazilian Portuguese question would be:

• Você falou com o xerife?

Notice that the verb form changes:

• falei = I spoke
• falou = you spoke / he spoke / she spoke (depending on context)

Brazilian Portuguese often relies on intonation for yes/no questions, so the word order usually stays the same.

• Você falou com o xerife?

You could also omit você in some contexts, but keeping it is very common in Brazil.

Yes, but it would change the structure and usually the focus.

For example:

• O xerife falou comigo. = The sheriff spoke with me.

That is a different sentence, because now o xerife is the subject.

In Falei com o xerife, o xerife is not the subject. It is the person you spoke with.

So word order matters for who is doing the action and who is receiving or participating in it.